Did UFC 108 Generate Over 400,000 PPV Buys?
by ufc4 on Jan 6, 2010 9:21 PM EST
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In the days and weeks leading up to last weekend's UFC 108 there were many an MMA pundit predicting doom and gloom for this card's buyrate. BE's own Michael Rome predicted 260-325,000 buys, which have been one of the lowest numbers in recent UFC history. However, it appears that the world's premier MMA promotion completely blew away those projections, if a pair of reports released this week are to be believed.
According to an article on Ringsidenews.com Dana White expects a buyrate in the 400-500,000 range.
On The PPV Numbers: “We were looking at (projected PPV buys) and … our norm is around 500,000, and we think we’re going to fall somewhere between (400,000 and 500,000),” White told reporters. “We’ll see what happens.”
And according to MMAPayout.com their projections indicate a buyrate of 440,000.
A weighted average statistical regression analysis of two different variables - viewership in Countdown to UFC and live gate revenue across 30-40 events – was used to derive a linear equation that allows us to input UFC 108’s respective Countdown viewership (559,000) and live gate revenue ($2 million) in order to determine an expected buyrate figure for the event:
- Countdown Prediction: 488,000
- Live Gate: 400,000
- Weighted average: 444,000 buys
What does this all mean? If true there could be a few factors:
1. Rashad Evans' exposure to the huge TUF 10 audience may have earned him a lot of new fans.
2. The combination of the bad weather across the nation and it being the day after New Year's means there were a lot of people sitting at home Saturday night with nothing to do.
3. The decision to start airing some preliminary fights on Spike is finally paying dividends as this Spike prelim show drew the largest audience yet.
We should get a more accurate estimate from Meltzer any time now but from what we can gather right now this show was a huge success even with all the bad luck that seemed to follow it. Perhaps next time everyone will choose their words more carefully when claiming the UFC has lost momentum.
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Meltzer says early trending indicates it will fall in the 300-330k range, but also said that it’s too early to tell for sure.
"He's taking more hits than Nick Diaz's bong." - The Voice
From the observer: (pay site)
Very early trending numbers (and again, I always make the note anything first week is very prelim so don’t go and act like it’s official because I don’t put stock in any number until at least a week, and preferably two weeks in) look around 300,000 to 330,000, so it’s at the low end of the range, which most would have predicted going in.
"He's taking more hits than Nick Diaz's bong." - The Voice
I read both and I believe the 300k-330k estimate was made prior to the fight, and the 440k estimate was made after the fight. I could be mistaken though
"You don't come to have your fingernails or your toenails painted. Goddamn, you come to fight, not to be a fairy."
Don Frye
by keyboardwarrior on Jan 7, 2010 1:33 PM EST up reply actions
300-330k is from early trending after the event. Paragraph was taken from the Jan 11th Observer, which was posted on tuesday.
"He's taking more hits than Nick Diaz's bong." - The Voice
cool, I think I was confusing the 300-330 estimate with the 275k estimate Greg had on his fanpost Jan 2nd
"You don't come to have your fingernails or your toenails painted. Goddamn, you come to fight, not to be a fairy."
Don Frye
by keyboardwarrior on Jan 7, 2010 1:57 PM EST up reply actions
My prediction fanpost had 275K. This was based on online searches and pageviews in the final days leading up to the event.
Basically, almost nobody was online looking into Rashad, Thiago, Dustin, or Paul Daley.
If the numbers come in close to 500K, I’ll be really impressed. There would need to have been a major positive impact from the Spike prelims and other holiday weekend related factors.
Melter’s early numbers of 300-330 sound more plausible, but we shall see!
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I believe Dana said that before the fight. Like he was just buttering up the press. I’m not sure,but I dont think it was after the event when he actually had an idea of how the show did.
No, it was at the post fight press conference:
http://mmajunkie.com/news/17420/dana-white-says-ufc-108-expected-to-do-400k-to-500k-ppv-buys.mma
After defending the much-maligned UFC 108 fight card at its post-event press conference this past Saturday, White said the card would likely perform at or slightly below the promotion’s expectation for average pay-per-view buys, a number that by many indications is on an uptick.
If that’s the case, add between $18 million and $22 million bucks to the UFC coffers, conservatively.
“We were looking at (projected PPV buys) and … our norm is around 500,000, and we think we’re going to fall somewhere between (400,000 and 500,000),” White told reporters. “We’ll see what happens.”
this card got so much buzz
this sounds pretty wild but u could argue that theres no such thing as bad press and the cursed card actually caused people to buy it at a pretty high rate
also fights after good cards generally sell better than ones after bad cards wouldnt be surprised to see this card get half decent buys
Good post, man. I’d say Rashad does indeed have a ton of new fans. I really hope they do a UFC Primetime for his fight with Rampage.
Mauricio Shogun Rua #1 LHW in the World. The TRUE Champion.
Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."
Meltzer is usually most reliable and he’s saying it was somewhere in the 300-330 ballpark. Which, honestly, is a win for the promotion. There was never any feeling that it was going to do massive numbers…the only real question was if the event could possibly fail to sell at all (i.e. below 300k). If it pulled in anything over 310 I’d say that would be a win.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Jan 7, 2010 9:51 AM EST reply actions
Have they been announced?
Did I miss the announcement on how many buys 108 did, or have they not come out yet?
"You don't come to have your fingernails or your toenails painted. Goddamn, you come to fight, not to be a fairy."
Don Frye
by keyboardwarrior on Jan 12, 2010 10:12 AM EST reply actions
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